Senior officials at a television conference said yesterday in Beijing that such efforts are expected to create a better environment for students and root out illegal publications.

"The cultural environment around campuses needs to be cleaned, as small bookstores sell pirated textbooks, reference books, discs and pornographic cartoon books to students," said Wang Maolin, head of a team specializing in cracking down on illegal and pornographic publications.

Internet bars have also mushroomed around campuses where pornographic games are provided to students.

To eliminate these bad influences, a special campaign will be launched in May to raid these illegal bookstores and Internet bars, he said.

Printing businesses will continue to be the focus of the administration's working plan this year.

Some printing houses with licenses issued by the government secretly print trademarks for fake products and pirated books, causing great problems for the administration in maintaining market order.

Any printing houses caught flouting the law will be severely punished as a warning to legal businesses, Wang said.

Those running without licenses or equipped with simple and crude facilities will be closed.

The administration achieved progress in last year's crackdown on illegal publications.

According to official statistics, 1,316 markets selling illegal publications were shut down last year, with 160 million pornographic and other illegal books seized.

The administration also hunted down 48 million smuggled discs last year with the help of local customs and police departments.

Progress has also been made in stopping illegal publication and copying, as the administration has carried out special checks on printing factories since last August.

Incomplete statistics show that the administration uncovered 1,920 cases of illegal publication among 21,000 printers checked.

A total of 3,556 printing houses without licenses were closed, 1,692 printing houses were punished for violating laws, and at least 400 pieces of printing equipment were confiscated.

Fifteen sets of equipment producing illegal discs were also seized last year, bringing the total number to 126 so far.

(China Daily January 31, 2002)